Garden Design Tips For Barefoot Gardeners

There is something very special about walking barefoot in nature. It can help you to feel a proper connection to the world around you and truly feel a part of the environment through which you are walking. Your own garden can be a safe haven where it is perfectly safe to slip off your shoes and feel the soil or grass beneath your feet.

Walking barefoot is not only beneficial for your mental health and well-being. It is also beneficial for your physical health. Many of the foot, leg, back and movement problems experienced by people in the modern world are due to the fact that much modern footwear is not ideally suited to our anatomy. It is very good for you to walk barefoot at least every once in a while.

If you like to walk barefoot in your garden, or would like to be able to do so more freely, here are some garden design tips to allow you to be a barefoot gardener:

Create Soft, Luxurious, Fragrant Lawns

A grassy lawn does not have to be large to provide a pleasant place to step in bare feet. But while many are obsessed with the perfect grass lawn, with perfectly clipped and even blades of grass, for barefoot gardeners, it is more pleasant to step on a lawn with plenty of moss, cover and other 'invaders'. So let clovers and moss take hold for a softer and more luxurious feel beneath the feet.

Another idea is to plant a chamomile lawn, or a carpet of hardy herbs such as thyme, which can be crushed beneath the feet and which will release a lovely fragrance as you walk.

Create Paths With Cobbles, River Stones or Smooth Stone Paving

For tender feet which are not used to walking on rougher surfaces, a path made with smoother materials will allow you to move more easily without shoes. Think about stone paths, as these will feel lovely beneath the feet – especially when warmed below the summer sun.

Choose Deciduous Trees for an Autumn Carpet

Walking barefoot need not only be an activity for the height of summer. Walking barefoot in the autumn, crunching crisp autumn leaves beneath your unshod feet can also be a unique and enjoyable experience that can help to connect you with the turning of the seasons. So if you want to walk barefoot more often in your garden, consider planting one or more deciduous trees, which will drop their leaves to create an autumnal carpet for you to walk on.

These are just a few tips to help you create a garden that you will enjoy walking in without your shoes. So slip off those shoes or sandals and walk in nature without any barriers between your feet and the ground to truly feel connected and get a deep sense of peace while enjoying your garden.